Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s18.332

v1.c3.s18.332

Didhiṣu in the Rigveda denotes a ‘wooer.’ It is applied¹ to the relative, probably brother-in-law,² who takes the place of the husband at the funeral rite, and who, as in the Hebraic levirate, is to beget a child by the brother’s wife if there is no son.³ Hillebrandt⁴ and Lanman⁵ consider that the word originally meant only ‘wooer,’ and applied to the king who, after the chief queen had lain beside the dead victim in the Puruṣamedha or ‘human sacrifice,’ claimed her again; but this view is hardly plausible.⁶ The term is also applied to the god Pūṣan⁷ as the wooer of his mother, apparently Sūryā.⁸